By Dale
Bowling
You may have
noticed two things in the news in the last few days.
One is
widely publicized; a prominent Republican suggested that 47% of Americans weren’t
taking responsibility for their lives because they don’t pay income taxes.
People like
Grandma who paid into the system for decades so she could collect Social
Security and Medicare.
Or people
who make so little money that they aren’t required to pay federal income tax,
i.e. the working poor.
Remember
every time they ask you if you want fries with that, the GOP says they’re not
taking responsibility!
The second
more poorly reported news item is a study conducted by the Congressional
Research Service showing that tax cuts for the wealthy actually don’t create
economic growth.
There have
been a lot of these studies over the years showing that Supply-Side Economics (tax
cuts for rich people fuel economic growth) doesn’t work, but we don’t need them
when any examination of American history shows the same thing.
Taxes were
really high in the 50s (top income tax rates were 90%, capital gains was 35%)
yet economic growth was substantially higher than today.
Real GDP
growth averaged 4.2% per year under Eisenhower. Under Bush after the biggest
tax cuts in American history it was 1.7%
Sweden whose
taxes are way higher than ours showed more growth in the 2000s than the US.
From 2000-2010, Sweden grew 2.31% per year compared with the US at 1.85%.
Lower taxes
for the Wealthy, benefit the Wealthy. It just doesn’t “trickle down” to the
rest of America. Studies show that.
Democrats
support everyone contributing to America given their ability to do so. If you’re
barely keeping your head above water, then you ought to be paying less than
someone with five houses. That's common sense. Vote Democrat in November for a
fairer, better America.
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